Facts of Daily Life in the 19th-Century England.

We are delighted to welcome you to “Weird Wednesday,” a joint series, partnered with our friends at before the second sleep, that explores the quirky side of our universe.

We live in an extraordinary quirky world that often times we forget to pause in our busy lives to notice. During these times many cannot venture outside-another great reason to pick up a book-so we are bringing our explorations to you.

As many of you already know, I’m obsessed with history and cultures from all walks of like. Today, I’m exploring, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens knew by Daniel Pool. A book on the facts of daily life in the 19^th-Century England. The book as a whole is mighty interesting but we are going to examine some of the information in its glossary. Needless to say, there are a little over a couple hundred pages but we won’t be covering it all. Let’s get started.

Quirky Meanings:

Abigail: A Lady’s maid.

Carking: Having the ability to worry someone or make them careworn.

Sounds about right.

Chine: A term applied to the spin of animals like pigs when they were being chopped up for cooking.

Gross.

Fly: A horse and carriage that was rented, usually by the day.

Who would have thought.

Glee: In music, the glee was a vocal piece for three people or more. In Jane Eyre, singers gather around the piano while Jane” the solo over, a duet followed and then a glee.”  and her pupil listen:

Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte and published in 1847.

Ha-ha: A landscaping device that consisted of a trench dug at some point in the view where it could not be seen unless one were very close to it. Also, called a sunken fence.

Ha ha! Too funny!

Ladybird: Not a bird at all but what we call the ladybug. Also, called a lady clock.

Had no idea that Ladybugs where ever refereed as that.

Milch cow: One that was giving milk.

Nob: Someone with a good deal of status. Used often in conjunction with “snob” in the sense snob initially had of someone of no status or pretensions.

Huh.

Rasher: A not very slice of ham or bacon.

I love the way this is worded.

Sell-out: To leave the army by selling the commission one had purchased to someone.

Skittles: Basically, bowling. One set up nine skittles or pins and then tried to knock them down with a ball.

When I hear the word “Skittles” I think of candy. Ha!

Snipe: A bird with a long bill that lives in marshes.

Is this the type of bird that is hard to hunt? Hmm… I wonder if this is the same name that referred to as Snipers? Or where it partly originated? I do believe Sniper was coined by the British Military in the 1700s? Need to look more into this. Can’t wait!

Stewpond: A special fishpond kept by manor houses in medieval days so as to have a supply of fresh fish.

That is actually a good idea. I wonder if people still actually do that?

Twelfth cakes: Cakes made for Twelfth Night. They contained a coin or bean that made the finder the “King” or “queen” of celebration.

I get the coin part but not entirely sure why a bean is used for this. Maybe it is explained in the book and I messed it. I haven’t read this book on quite sometime.

Whiting: A good-tasting small fish. Also, pulverized fine chalk used for cleaning or whitewashing.

Talk about two different meanings altogether!

This post was fun to but together. I highly recommend adding this book to your to-read list.

Stephanie Hopkins

About the book:

A “delightful reader’s companion”; (The New York Times) to the great nineteenth-century British novels of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, the Brontës, and more, this lively guide clarifies the sometimes bizarre maze of rules and customs that governed life in Victorian England.

For anyone who has ever wondered whether a duke outranked an earl, when to yell “Tally Ho!” at a fox hunt, or how one landed in “debtor’s prison”; this book serves as an indispensable historical and literary resource. Author Daniel Pool provides countless intriguing details (did you know that the “plums” in Christmas plum pudding were actually raisins?) on the Church of England, sex, Parliament, dinner parties, country house visiting, and a host of other aspects of nineteenth-century English life—both “upstairs” and “downstairs.”

An illuminating glossary gives at a glance the meaning and significance of terms ranging from “ague” to “wainscoting,” the specifics of the currency system, and a lively host of other details and curiosities of the day.

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